File:History of the city of New York- its origin, rise and progress (1896) (14760080421).jpg

Identifier: historyofcityof00lamb (find matches)
Title: History of the city of New York: its origin, rise and progress
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Lamb, Martha J. (Martha Joanna), 1829-1893 Harrison, Constance Cary, "Mrs. Burton Harrison,", 1846-1920
Subjects: New York (N.Y.) -- History
Publisher: New York : A. S. Barnes and company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
er, not in actual immediate demand, were being quietly removed,
as fast as conveyances could be procured, to a post partially fortified at
Dobb's Ferry.
Days slipped by and the enemy made no further advance. They were
fearful of precipitating the destruction of the richest city in America.
And as Washingtons appeal to Congress and its response were not borne
on the wings of the wind, or in coaches propelled by steam, there was
ample time for the expression of much diverse opinion among the military
and civil authorities, before the sense of the supreme government was
known. Putnam urged an immediate retreat from the city, as one por-
tion of the army might at any moment be cut off before the other could
support it, the extremities of the lines being sixteen miles apart. Mercer
said, We should keep New York, if possible, as the acquiring of it will
give eclat to the arms of Great Britain, afford the soldiers good quarters,
and furnish a safe harbor for their fleet. Greene, from his sick-bed, wrote ;
Text Appearing After Image:
QUESTION OF BURNING NEW YORK CITY. 117
"Abandon, by all means, the city and island. They should not be put in
competition with the general interests of America. There is no object to
be obtained by holding any position below Kingsbridge. I would burn
the city and suburbs to deprive the enemy of barracking their whole
army together and of profiting by a general market. Scott was of the
same mind, although the city contained his entire possessions. Reed
wrote to his wife, on the 6th, We are still here, in a posture somewhat
awkward. We think (at least I do) that we cannot stay, and yet we do
not know how to go, so that we may be properly said to be between hawk
and buzzard. John Jay had long since advocated the burning of the
city; and Wolcott quoted precedents where invading armies had been
starved and ruined by the laying waste of the countries upon which
they had built their hopes. Heath, Spencer, and George Clinton were
unwilling that a place should be abandoned which had been fortified with
such great cost and labor, and never wavered for a moment in their
advice to hold the city.

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